NASA's historic Mission Control is soon to be made even more historic.

The agency's original control room in Houston, which first went active 50 years ago Wednesday (June 3), has been dormant since 1992. A National Historic Landmark, today it is a public tour stop and features the authentic consoles used for the Apollo 11 moon landing and Apollo 13 in-flight emergency, among 40 other space missions.

Now, a restoration effort is getting underway to make sure the room is around for many generations to come.

Robert Pearlman

Space Center Houston is raising $3 million to help restore Johnson Space Center's Historic Mission Control to its late-1960s appearance, reports The New York Times.

Binders, maps, pencil sharpeners, logbooks, flags and plastic foam coffee cups will be placed on consoles and desks. The original configurations of keyboards, monitors and TV sets will be recreated, and buttons and lights will be activated to evoke a sense of missions in progress. Rows of cameras will be reinstalled on the ceilings. Period clothing and hats will be hung from coat racks. (Some of the low-tech equipment will most likely puzzle children unfamiliar with the workings of rotary phones, reel-to-reel tapes and pneumatic tubes that delivered data printouts.)

"We want it to look like the flight controllers have just walked away from their consoles for a bit," said Sandra J. Tetley, a historic preservation officer at the Johnson Space Center.

drifting to the right

I suggest that a slide rule or two also lay about, and pocket protectors should be readily apparent in association with the period clothing. (Will ashtrays and cigarette butts be allowed?)

On edit: Whoops, reread the original article, and sure enough, ashtrays will be included.

In November, Gene Kranz, a flight director during NASA's Gemini and Apollo missions, spoke to a group of preservationists touring the room.

At 83, Kranz remains instantly recognizable: In the 1995 film "Apollo 13," actor Ed Harris captured his furrowed brow, flat-top haircut and Air Force efficiency. Like all NASA people, Kranz usually refers to the room by its acronym, MOCR2 - pronounced "Mo-ker Two."

"This is a place of history," he told the group. "But what I see is a tired Mission Control, worn of its heart and soul. It's time to start the battle for its restoration."

Robert Pearlman

Space Center Houston release

On a Mission: Restoring Historic Mission Control

NASA's Historic Apollo Mission Control is soon to be reborn.

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to first land a man on the moon will take place in 2019. Its Mission Control — where NASA's flight control team planned, trained and executed decades of Gemini, Apollo and early shuttle human spaceflight missions — is in acute need of restoration.

In preparation for the anniversary, Space Center Houston is launching a campaign to raise funds that will help support a major restoration of the room, also called the Mission Operations Control Room.

The restoration will feature the authentic consoles used to monitor nine Gemini and all Apollo flights, including the flight of Apollo 11 that first landed men on the moon, the flight of Apollo 13 that famously experienced an in-flight emergency and 40 other space missions.

This important site was named in 1985 to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its historical significance and worthiness of preservation. Only through the efforts of Space Center Houston can the general public visit the control room area and experience its authenticity.

More than just a site where history was made, the Historic Mission Control is a symbol of the dedicated team that made history over and over. They did so through a process that continues to inspire generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts to tackle the technological and scientific challenges of today and tomorrow.

Space Center Houston and Haviland Digital are partnering in support of the restoration project. Due for release in spring 2017 "Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo" is an exciting documentary that brings Mission Control to life through the voices of those who sat at the consoles during the Apollo era.

A fully restored Mission Control will have an inestimable value to future educational programs that encourage young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Webster City Council approved a $3.5 million commitment last night as a lead gift to its longtime partner Space Center Houston to help fund the restoration of NASA's Historic Mission Control used during the Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle eras.

The restoration of the National Historic Landmark will be coordinated by NASA Johnson Space Center with funds raised by the nonprofit Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, which owns and operates Space Center Houston, the official JSC visitor center. The $5 million campaign is called "On a Mission: Restoring Historic Mission Control."

"The city of Webster, its hoteliers and hospitality partners are dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the community with the rich history, innovation and outstanding achievements in space exploration that are happening here," said Webster Mayor Donna Rogers. "This donation from our Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund is one way to provide exceptional learning opportunities that attract people from around the world."

NASA began celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo era earlier this year and it culminates in 2019 with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The historic Mission Operations Control Room used during those missions is in acute need of restoration.

"This gift helps us preserve a significant piece of history and provides an extraordinary learning opportunity to inspire people of all ages with the wonders of space exploration," said William T. Harris, President and CEO of the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation and Space Center Houston. "We are grateful to the city of Webster for its continued support and for keeping this symbol of ingenuity and perseverance alive for generations to come."

It is the largest philanthropic gift in the history of Space Center Houston. Although it is a major achievement for the restoration efforts, another $1.5 million remains to be raised to achieve the goal. To motivate additional support, $400,000 of the city of Webster's gift is directed as a 1:1 challenge for a crowdfunding campaign to invite the public to help with the restoration and raise an additional $400,000.

Since the city of Webster was incorporated in 1958, NASA has served as a catalyst to grow the city and the region. Webster is home to more than 2,200 business – many of which are aerospace companies working on NASA's current deep space missions and the daily operations for the International Space Station. The city's global importance to space exploration will continue through this generous gift.

Over the past 50 years, NASA's Mission Control in Houston has undergone a number of upgrades, improving the technologies that support humans in space. The facility's next renovation though, is notably focused on achieving the opposite — rolling back decades of changes to return its most famous room to how it looked when the first astronauts landed on the moon.

The Mission Operations Control Room, located on the third floor of the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas, is about to get a $5 million restoration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and serve as an inspiration for the generations of visitors who come to see it on public tours.

The NASA Mission Control consoles that were used for the first moon landings are set to be brought back to life by a Kansas museum that restored the Apollo 13 spacecraft and conserved the recovered rocket engines that launched Apollo 11.

The Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas announced its selection by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to restore the consoles to how they appeared at the height of their use during the Apollo moon missions. The Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks division will re-power the consoles so that their buttons and screens can be lit again as part of a $3.5 million restoration of the historic Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) at NASA's Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center.

Andy Anderson

I see in the article it is mentioned that the MOCR will be restored to represent its appearance for Apollo 11 but the consoles will be an Apollo 15 configuration.

"For the consoles themselves, the flight controllers felt that Apollo 15 was the apex in technology for the early manned space program. They felt it was appropriate to restore the consoles to the Apollo 15 mission," Remar said.

While this may well be true, also, I think it has something to do with the fact that the only surviving documentation available showing the Apollo console layouts, is contained in NASA/Philco document "PHO-TR155 - MCC Operational Configuration - Mission J1, Apollo 15."

There just does not seem to be any other Apollo documentation preserved that has that sort of detail available.

In any case, it is a wonderful thing that MOCR-2 and the people who worked there will be recognized for the contribution this facility made to the successful Apollo program by this restoration.

I assume that there will be a post restoration maintenance program to keep the "moment in time" as fresh as it will be when completed and that access to the MOCR will be strictly limited, even more so than the restrictions recently in place and certainly not as open as it was for the "Level 9" tour I went on a few years back.

Robert Pearlman

According to Space Center Houston CEO William Harris, from our interview:

...we want to set aside some funds for ongoing maintenance. We know that over time there will be things, from normal wear and tear, that will need to be upgraded.

We've already implemented security protocols, so now the access is very limited to the room. It used to be that anyone in that facility had access to the room because it was in a working building. That is no longer the case.

We have stanchioned off the consoles, so Level 9 tours and other VIP tours can enter the room but they are restricted as to where they can go. You can no longer sit in the seats or sit at the consoles.

Forty-eight years ago, flight controllers in NASA's Houston Mission Control helped to guide Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the first ever landing on the moon.

Just moments after Armstrong radioed to Earth the "Eagle has landed," Mission Control replied. "We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. (We're breathing again.)"

Now, almost half a century later, some of those same guys are hoping you will help Mission Control raise some green.

Fra Mauro

Did my part!

Robert Pearlman

The campaign to Restore Houston Mission Control has reached (and surpassed) its goal of $250,000, with 22 days more to go!

"It isn't equipment that wins the battles; it is the quality and the determination of the people fighting for a cause in which they believe." — Gene Kranz

Let's pause for a moment to celebrate before we continue in our efforts to preserve this international icon of space history.

Robert Pearlman

The Kickstarter campaign ended today having raised $506,905 — more than double the original goal. From Space Center Houston:

Thanks to you, we have achieved something extraordinary. We more than doubled our initial goal of $250,000 and rocketed past the Webster Challenge matching funds to more than $500,000!

The restoration of Historic Mission Control will enable us to restore and preserve a very special place. The legacy of the Apollo program and Historic Mission Control will inspire future generations to tackle challenges we can't even envision today.The words of Gene Kranz, spoken in the film "Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo," seem fitting at this moment:

"Somehow....when we came together we were greater than the sum of our parts... We were better than we ever expected to be; we were more successful than we expected to be."

With the Webster Challenge matching funds, the campaign raised $906,905, leaving only $993,095 left to reach the project's overall $5 million funding goal. You can still donate here.

The historic consoles used by NASA flight controllers to manage the first missions to land astronauts on the moon are on the move.

Workers on Thursday (Jan. 25) were busy labeling and removing the iconic rows of consoles that comprised NASA's historic mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The green metal cabinets, with their cathode-ray tube displays, rotary dials and backlit push button panels, are being temporarily relocated to the Cosmosphere museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, where they will be restored to their Apollo-era condition and appearance.

Robert Pearlman

From John Mulnix of The Space Shot via Facebook:

I visited the Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks facility this morning as the first of the MOCR consoles arrived from Houston. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from today.